Jocelyn Curry

Ever since I ate my first pomegranate as a child, I have loved them. I loved them so much then that when I picked blackberries in the summer, I'd take the biggest one I could find and pluck each black lobe off the berry one-by-one, pretending that the berry was a pomegranate. Now, one of the things I appreciate about them is that they are true autumn fruits. One cannot buy a pomegranate in March, at least not in grocery stores around here. Yes, they have become very popular because of their health-giving attributes, but that hasn't made them available all year 'round except in juice form.

Over the years I have incorporated varied images of pomegranates into artworks – everything from hand-carved eraser stamps to textile stencils. For this final Autumn Image entry honoring the pomegranate I selected a page from my travel journal from my October, 2007 trip to China. As our bus traveled the roadways of central China, I was quick to notice that it was pomegranate season there, too. Vendors sat by the road with their small tables of fruit stacked in orderly pyramids. When we reached Kowloon City, I struck out for a fruit stand to buy one of the paler-hued Chinese pomegranates. I missed the deep red of the western fruits, but the colors of the Chinese one were pleasing to paint.